Game-playing clubs



' A ril 14, 1959 M. LoRTg-nols GAME-PLAYING CLUBS Filed Sept. 25, 1956 Michel Lorthiois, Tourcoing', France Application September 2:, 1956', serial No. 611,963 Claims priority; application France December'19,11955 1 Claim. c1; sis-69) The present inventionrelates to improvements in golf clubs and the like. For" golf, particular, sticks or clubs? are used to drive hard indiamibber ballstoward holes spread over a wide area; These clubs are divided into two quite distinct types:

(1) Clubs with a wood head usedfor the first strokes to drive the ball to great distances, or on the greens when the position of the ball allows.

(2) Clubs with a metal head almost solely used on the greens.

These clubs with a metal head, usually called irons are suitable for long and short distance strokes. However, the head, often termed a spoon must have a different' face angle in relation to" the shaft or handle for various conditions so that the ball can be hit easily and driven t-he required distance.

Iripractice if! the game of golf eight irons are CO I II- manly used ranging" from Number 2 (minimum angle) to Number 9 (maximum aiigle) in addition to the club used on the green usually called the putter and the club for lifting the'ball ove'r obstacles or out of bunkers usually called a fwedge.

Hence the golf-player must often be accompanied by a caddy carrying the various clubs which will have to be used in the course of the game unless he wishes to carry them himself.

- it is; therefore, one object of fhe present invention to provide a multipurpose club with a metal head intended to replace all or part of the irons used by the player.

It has been proposed to use a head fitted with a pivot which can be inserted and fixed in a socket provided for this purpose in the base of the shaft, the said pivot being threaded to receive a knurled nut to enable it to be clamped in the socket.

In order to regulate the angle of the club the base of the head is in the shape of a plate which is in contact with the face of the socket at the base of the shaft and is fitted with teeth or recesses which fit into corresponding recesses or teeth provided for this purpose on one face of the said socket to fix the position of the head and prevent rotation in the socket.

The surface of the base of the head may be provided with radial teeth separated by grooves which correspond to grooves and radial teeth on the face of the socket. An index mark is formed on the edge of the socket whilst various numbered guide marks are placed on the edge of the base to permit setting of the head into clearly defined positions.

If thirty-six radiating divisions are provided on the surface of the base an angle of 10 is formed between each setting position. These positions would however provide in practice successive, coarsely spaced angles which correspond only approximately to the angles of clubs in use and a sufficiently fine adjustment would be impossible. In fact the first and fourth graduations would correspond to clubs Nos. 2 and 9; on the other hand graduation 2 would give an angle between clubs 4 and 5, and graduation 3 would give an angle between clubs 6 and 7. To

2 1 secure a graduation exactly a reein with the angles of all the clubs in use engagement faces bearing so many teeth would be required that the construction would be largely impractical by reason of the large space occupied and the weight thereof, both of which would exceed those permitted by the accepted rules of the game.

It is, therefore, another object of thelpresent invention to provide a multipurpose club wherein a ring is intei'f posed between the toothed surface at the base of the head and the toothed surface of the socket at the base of the shaft, which ring is provided with parallel faces having teeth which fit between the teeth at the base of the head on the one hand and the socket at the base of the shaft on the other hand, these two sets of faces having different numbers of teeth calculated and arranged in such a way that a differential division is obtained by rotational ad'- justment of the toothed ring relatively to the two toothed surfaces, to give what may be termed a vernie'r" adjustment.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a multipurpose club, wherein said ring comprises an internal cup against which bears a spring surrounding the spindle and which presses at its other end within a concentric cup either of the toothed surface at the base of the head or of the toothed surface of the socket at the base of the shaft in order that this spring holds in assem bly one of these two groups of toothed rings when the holding nut is released.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a multipurpose club, wherein said interposed ring, which is preferably knurled at its outer part, includes a mark extending from the surface having a coarse tooth spacing to the surface having a fine tooth spacing to assist setting of the club to a desired face angle.

The edge of the toothed surface at the base of the head and the edge of the toothed surface of the were at the base of the shaft are each provided with a numbered graduation marking bearing respectively the same numerals so that by placing the same graduation markings against the index marking of the interposed ring there is obtained a range of angular setting of the head which corresponds to the normal club numbers. The numbers marked on the two surfaces are thus equivalent to the numbers of the related golf irons.

With these and other objects in view which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a profile view of the base of the club comprising the improvements of the present invention, completely assembled; and

Fig. 2 shows in section an exploded view of the elements at the base of the club which are shown in Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings and in particular to Figs. 1 and 2, a ring 15, preferably with a knurled surface, is placed between the hollow cylindrical hub 3 of the shaft 1 and the base 6 of the club head. The base surfaces in contact one with the other are provided with projections and recesses disposed in the radial sense and forming sets of teeth 5a and 5b. A different number of teeth are provided in the two sets in such a manner that the number of teeth in the set 5a is an uneven multiple of the number of teeth in the set 5b so that fine adjustment on a differential principle can be obtained by setting the ring 15 in various rotary positions and a Vernier adjustment, as set forth above, is brought about,

To facilitate adjustment of the club, an arrangement is adopted which always maintains one of the toothed surfaces 5a and 5b in contact when the holding nut 11 is released. In the example of construction of the present invention it is arranged that the toothed elements 5b are held in assembly but the arrangement described hereinafter may also be reversed to hold the other toothed assembly 5a in engagement. For this purpose the interposed ring 15, advantageously knurled on its external periphery, is made hollow so as to support a cup 16v against the base of which a spring 17 presses, said spring surrounding the spindle and it bears at its other extremity against the base of a recess 21 concentrio with the toothed surface 5a on the face of the staff head 3.

In this way the toothed system 5b is maintained assembled by the pressure of the spring 17 when the nut 11 is slaekened. It is also possible to reverse the cup 16 in such amanner that the spring 17 engages a recess 22 concentric with the toothed system at the base of the club head and in this case it is the teeth 5a which are held assembled on slackening of the nut 11.

In the two cases the rim of the cup 16 is located in the recesses 21 and 22, respectively. The cup 16 may be in the form of a sleeve fitting in the recesses 21 and 22 and thus locating the ring 15.

The interposed ring has a marking 18 provided thereon which marking 18 runs between the two sets of teeth 5a and 5b and, preferably, between the tips of two opposed teeth to facilitate the reading of the markings 18.

The edge of the socket at the base of the shaft 1 and the base surface of the head 7 have likewise graduation markings 19 and 20, respectively, numbered with the same numerals which correspond to the numbers of normal golf clubs so that by placing one number of the graduation series 19 opposite the same number of the graduation marking 20, employing the marking 18, for determining this setting, it is possible to obtain precisely the angle setting for the normal club head of the corresponding number.

Naturally the threaded end of the rod 10 is equipped with a slight peening 12 (Fig. 2) to prevent the loss of the nut 11.

By reason of the arrangement of the club according to the present invention the golfer can employ only a very small number of clubs throughout his game, which may even be limited to a single club in the case of irons numbered from 2 to 9 inclusive. The golfer need thus not be accompanied by a caddy to carry his clubs or alternatively he himself need not be loaded with unnecessary clubs.

While I'have disclosed'one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that this embodiment is given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the claim.

I claim:

A game-playing club comprising a shaft head having an angularly directed hollow socket and an adjustable club-head, a screw bolt secured to said club-head and projecting through said socket, a nut screwed on the free end of said screw bolt and adjustably connecting said club-head and said socket and axially movable therebetween, a cup member disposed inside said ring member and having a closed bottom and an open end, a helical spring disposed in said cup member and one end of said spring engaging said closed bottom and the other end of said spring engaging said club-head and said socket, respectively, said club-head defining a first recess opposite said ring member, and said socket defining a second recess opposite said ring member, the respective end portions of said cup member being received by the corresponding one of said recesses, said ring member having a first set of a plurality of teeth at one end face thereof and a second set of a plurality of teeth at the opposite end face thereof, the number of teeth of said first set being an uneven multiple of the number of teeth of said second set, said socket having at its end face a third set of teeth meshing with and equal in number with that of said ad jacent set of said ring member, said club-head having at its end face a fourth set of teeth meshing with and equal in number with that of said adjacent set of said ring member, means for easy rotation of said ring member, the latter carrying at its outer periphery a single reference mark extending from said first set of teeth to said second set of teeth, and said club-head and said socket carrying a calibrated scale corresponding to the predetermined gradient of slope of two successive club-heads, so that upon loosening said nut an axial and rotating movement of said ring a Vernier adjustment is brought about.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,939,540 Charvet Dec. 12, 1933 2,705,147 Winter Mar. 29, 1955 2,777,694 Winter Jan. 15, 1957 

